The word 'critical" has three meanings which are dangerous, important, and disapproving. The purpose of this blog is to examine important or over-looked cultural, political, artistic, or historical issues of our time. Also, this blog is intended to be educational.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Distorting the Truth Without Actually Lying

Distorting
the truth without actually lying has a name: paltering. We all do it, and
according to a new Harvard University study, most of us feel better about
paltering than flat-out lying. But before you give yourself a free pass, know
that this type of deception is viewed by others just as harshly as a
straight-up lie, and can seriously hurt your reputation if people catch on.

Paltering
is common in negotiations and in politics. In a blog post for the Harvard Business Review, study co-author
and professor of business administration Francesca Gino, PhD, outlined a few instances
from the 2016 presidential race.

So
politicians do it, but it is also something that many of us do on a regular
basis, in both our personal and professional lives.

"Even
I do it too frequently,” says lead author Todd Rogers, PhD, associate professor
of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. “I’ll go into my inbox and look
at an email I was supposed to reply to weeks ago. And I’ll look out the window
and think about it for a few seconds, and then write, ‘I’ve been thinking about
your email."

"I’m clearly creating the impression that
I’ve been thinking this over for the last three weeks, when in truth I’ve been
thinking about it for the last second and a half," Rogers toldHealth magazine. “I’m
creating a false impression by telling truthful things but yet it does not feel as
unethical as lying.”

Gino and Rogers wanted
to see what people on both sides of the coin think about paltering from an
ethical, and personal, standpoint. To date, most research on deception has
focused on two types, they say: lying by commission (using false statements)
and by omission (choosing not to disclose relevant information).

In
a series of experiments involving more than 1,750 participants, the researchers
determined that paltering is common and recognized as
a separate, third form of deception. In one study, more than 50% of business
executives enrolled at Harvard Business School admitted they had used the
tactic in some or most of their negotiations.

When
they asked people to role-play as deceivers and those who had been deceived,
the researchers discovered that participants felt better about paltering rather
than lying by commission; they thought their actions were more ethical because
they were technically telling the truth. But, when their deception was
revealed, their counterparts graded them just as negatively as if they’d lied
by commission.

"When
individuals discover that a prospective negotiation partner has paltered to
them in the past, they are less likely to trust that partner,” said
Rogers in a press release, “and, therefore, less likely to negotiate with that
person again.”

In
other words, don’t get too comfortable with your habit of twisting the truth.
If you get caught, it could definitely backfire. “Everybody’s got to use their
own compass,” Rogers says, “but how others might see you is definitely
something to keep in mind.”

The
study was published in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology. Rogers says the findings can also
serve as a reminder, to everyone, to watch out for those who may try to use
paltering against them.

“When
someone appears to answer your question but doesn’t address the exact, narrow
details, that creates an opportunity to mislead you,” he says. “If you ask the
used car salesman if there have ever been any problems with a vehicle and he
tells you, ‘I drove it today and it felt like a brand-new car,’ that should be
a flag.”